Dr. Berwicks Healthcare Vision
By Hunter Hayes
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Suppose your doctor one day not only utters those dreaded words You have cancer" but in the next breath also says the treatment options are so complex that
they will decide which treatment you receive. After the initial shock youd probably tell that doctor to take a hike or worse.
Yet this is essentially the new reality Americans will face if Dr. Donald Berwick the Presidents choice to oversee the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) gets his way in implementing ObamaCare.
In fact during a speech to Britains National Health Service in July 2008 Dr. Berwick said
I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do."
Thats not all.
Dr. Berwick also advocates a socialized healthcare system similar to Englands National Health Service (NHS).
Excellent healthcare is by definition redistribution" Berwick has been quoted saying. I am romantic about the NHS I love it.
So how could Dr. Berwicks love affair with the NHS healthcare model impact your healthcare? Lets compare the US to Englands healthcare system.
On average English patients have a 175 longer wait time than the average American who needs an appointment with a healthcare specialist. Does that make you feel as tingly inside as it does Dr. Berwick?
Of course this is a serious topic a deadly serious topic when you consider that Englands cancer death rate is much higher than here in the U.S. The facts are shocking:
only 41 out of every 100 women have a five-year survival rate. The statistics for men are very similar.
Its alarming to think that if you were one of 100 men whove been diagnosed with cancer in England you would have
only a 51 percent five-year survival rate.
This is the system that President Obamas healthcare point man finds so romantic."
Its an outrage.
In a recent testimony the Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster said that because of ObamaCare doctors will start bailing out of the system and that the promise that everybody will be able to keep their existing health care cannot be kept.
Already our medical choices are being cut; and if the Senate confirms Dr. Berwick to continue administering CMS then our healthcare system will be managed by a man who lusts for a system where individuals have less choice and worse patient outcomes.
Hunter Hayes is the Vice President of Advocacy & Legislative Affairs for Generation America The Conservative Alternative to AARP".
